We started our second day in Valpolicella by driving into Verona. We walked around for awhile. The city is just as amazing as everywhere else we have been so far. We walked by the Arena, stopped for a gelato, and headed to Juliet's balcony (Romeo and Juliet). We toured the museum there, and made it just before the rush as when we walked out there was hardly room to actually leave the museum. Lucky for us as I never would have waited had there have been that many people when we arrived.
As we were driving back from Verona we passed by the cellar for Tommasi (a great producer of amarone - sold at Costco and worth the drive for the discount!) We stopped in and asked about a tour. They were giving one in english the next day at 2, but we would already be on our way to our next stop. The girl felt terrible as she was preparing for a tour that evening in Italian, and didn't have much time. She told us she would quickly show us the cellar. She probably spent 45 minutes with us showing us the cellar, providing a tasting, giving us facts about Tommasi and Valpolicella, and answering our questions. Not bad for someone that didn't have any spare time (the actual tour is only an hour). As our experience with Tommasi went so well, we thought we should continue. We plugged winery into Juanita, and off we went. So remember yesterday when I said I thought I knew what narrow roads were like? Well I didn't until today. Juanita had us literally winding up one side of a mountain just to continue the back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on the other side. The insanity of this is that these Italian roads are barely wide enough for one car. What do you do if someone comes the other way? Pull over you say. Well on the right you have a cliff and on the left you have the mountain. Let's add the fact that our hatchback Ford Modena is not an off-roading vehicle. The entire time I am trying to enjoy the views, as they were outstanding with rows and rows of vines climbing the hills that are spotted with old houses or churches, I am also trying not to scream in sheer horror. Trevor of course thinks this is hilarious, and doesn't feel the need to even try and make this drive more comfortable for me. Forty-five minutes later we arrive at the winery. But wait it's actually a wine store. This sucks! We talk them into a tasting of a wine neither one of us particularly care for, and head on our way. I ask Trevor why it is Juanita would take us up the mountain just to take us down the other side? Why wouldn't we just go around? Sure enough we enter our hotel in and this time she decides - yes around the mountain would be better. Thanks for realizing that after the trip there and two changes of underwear!!
We headed back to the B&B and relaxed on the terrace with a bottle of Lonardi Soave. Before we knew it it was 7:30 and time to get ready for dinner. Back to the Lonardi restaurant we went for another serving of the Risotto all Amarone.
No comments:
Post a Comment